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{
    "id": 798993,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/798993/?format=api",
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    "content": "However, we note that the Ksh2billion shared amongst all the 47 counties may not necessarily be enough in addressing the needs on the ground. It is therefore, an area that we need to look at. It is true that the national Government is providing for a technical training institute in all the 290 constituencies. There is also this other move towards ensuring that each of the 1450 wards gets a village youth polytechnic. Going forward, we may want to consider an increment of allocation towards this. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue that arises here is the one of conditional grants where we have monies allocated from our development partners towards the enhancement of devolution services. This is especially because we realise that increasingly as a country, our counties and towns are becoming more urbanised. On a competitive basis, some of these allocations are going to go a long way in ensuring that we facilitate the urbanization of 59 towns. They will improve their service delivery to the country. This allocation is first, on an equal basis, about Kshs20million per county, and then the rest can be competed for. It is important because it encourages the idea of best practice. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a contentious issue that saw a lot exchange among us, the Council of Governors (CoG) and the Treasury is fuel levy. Counties have a very big burden of about 31000 kilometres of roads that they need to maintain including tarmacking. However, the monies allocated to them depend on the percentile provided by the Roads Act. It is an issue that also depends of the projection of the amount of money that will be collected from the very fuel levy that we are sharing. Initially we thought we would allocate about Kshs8.5billion to the counties for roads. That is a very bullish projection of revenue and so it has been revised realistically to about Kshs8.3billion so that we do not occasion a deficit that we cannot meet. However, there is a very big push by the CoG to ensure that we increase the fuel levy to 20 per cent. We will be discussing this based on the deliberations of the message that we got from the National Assembly, in order to determine that it is the case. While there were agreements to that effect under Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC), we, as a Committee, were guided by the law as currently obtaining that provides for 15 per cent. Until such a time that the law is changed to 20 per cent, allocations shall be guided by the existing law. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a Committee we have also extensively discussed the fact that there is need to ensure that we have a county treasury so that we have a one stop port of call where one can track the various expenditures of the Treasury. This is not just necessarily for the ordinary equitable sharable revenue but also the Own Source Revenue (OSR). The OSR is a very grey area. I am sure, going forward as part of our legislative agenda, we will ensure that we legislate around that. The provision of the county treasury is critical so that counties can been enabled to track the expenses. They can develop the requisite expertise to ensure that they comply with the various financial obligations. Otherwise, it is a very good Bill. Of course, timelines are not on our side. We hope that with the increased allocations to counties, we are going to see “Wanjiku” and I can add “Ouma” benefit from the devolution dividend in the spirit of the “handshake”. Everybody can then feel that it is happening. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}